Variable being used without initialized

[daveofva]

// David1
// Lab 14. This program takes user input and assigns
// appropriate values to the sides of a triangle.

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
#include <iomanip>
#include <cmath>

using namespace std;

const string ID = "David - Lab 14";

int main()
{
ofstream fout;

int side1, // sides of triangle
side2,
side3,
Triangle, // Types of triangles
Equilateral, // ^
Isosceles, // ^
Scalene; // ^

string exit;

fout.open("David - Lab 14.out");
fout << ID << endl << endl;

cout << "Running lab 14... " << ID << endl << endl;

cout << "Enter three sides:";
cin >> side1 >> side2 >> side3;

// bool

if (((side1 + side2) > side3) || ((side2 + side3) > side1) || ((side1 + side3) > side2))
{Triangle;
}
else {
false;
}

if ((Triangle = true) && (side1 == side2 == side3))
{Equilateral;
}
else {
false;
}

if ((Triangle = true) && ((side1 == side2) || (side2 == side3) || (side1 == side3)))
{Isosceles;
}
else {
false;
}

if ((Triangle = true) && (side1 != side2) || (side1 != side3) || (side2 != side3))
{Scalene;
}
else {
false;
}

// output

fout << "You entered: " << side1 << " " << side2 << " " << side3 << endl
<< "----------------------" << endl
<< "Type " << "Value" << endl
<< "----------------------" << endl
<< "Triangle" << Triangle << endl
<< "Equilateral" << Equilateral << endl
<< "Isosceles" << Isosceles << endl
<< "Scalene" << Scalene << endl
<< "----------------------" << endl;

cout << "Press any letter and return to exit";
cin >> exit;

return 0;
}


Sorry, I'm kinda new at C++... It keeps saying that "Scalene is being used without being initialized".

Thanks

[zb0S216C]

It's quite simple, you need to initialize Scalene before you use it. You should always initialize variables as soon as possible - preferably at the point of definition/deceleration.

If you don't know what initialization is, here's an example:

int Variable;      // Un-initialized.
int Variable( 0 ); // Initialized to zero( calling int's constructor ).
int Variable = 0;  // Initialized to zero. 

[daveofva]

Why is it only happening for Scalene then? Why not for Triangle, Equilateral, and Isosceles as well? I did not assign values to those..

How would I go about initializing it? The value needs to be interchangeable based on the user input, so if I set it to int Variable = 0, it will be permanently set to 0...

[zb0S216C]

it will be permanently set to 0...

No it won't as long as it's not marked constant( const ). Try initializing all the variables you define to zero and see if that helps.

[daveofva]

Oh, Awesome! Thank you so much!